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Division of Physical & Biological Sciences
Nat Sci II Annex
University of California
Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Phone: 459-2931
Fax: 459-4161
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Research Units

Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO) headquarters is at UCSC, an NSF-funded Science and Technology Center focused on advancing and disseminating the technology of adaptive optics to science, health care, industry, and education.

Center for the Molecular Biology of RNA (RNA Center) promotes the interdisciplinary study of the structure, function, and biological roles of RNA.

Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics
With units at four UC campuses, IGPP promotes and coordinates basic research on the understanding of the origin, structure and evolution of Earth, the Solar System, and the Universe. The UCSC branch is focused around three interdisciplinary research centers that comprise the interdisciplinary activity of our faculty.

• Center for Dynamics and Evolution of the Land-Sea Interface (C.DELSI) enhances interdisciplinary research on the complex ocean, atmosphere and continental systems that impact regional climate, marine and freshwater resources, agriculture, fisheries, and natural hazards.
  
  
• Center for Origin, Dynamics and Evolution of Planets (CODEP) coordinates and promotes campus activities related to the origin, dynamics, and evolution of planetary bodies in our Solar System and around other stars.
  
  
• Center for the Study of Imaging and Dynamics of the Earth (CSIDE) conducts basic multidisciplinary research on terrestrial imaging and the dynamics of the near surface, crust, mantle, and core.
  
  
• Center for Remote Sensing (CRS)coordinates interdisciplinary research on Earth and Planetary surfaces using the multifaceted tools of remote sensing imagery.

Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) provides facilities and support to faculty, researchers, and students interested in marine sciences. Resources include the Center for Ocean Health, a state-of-the-art research building located at the Joseph M. Long Marine Laboratory, our coastal marine campus.

• Pinniped Research in Cognition & Sensory Systems - This program, run under the direction of Dr. Ronald Schusterman, has been based at Long Marine Lab, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, since 1985. The project is designed to investigate several aspects of pinniped behavior, including sensory perception and cognition.
  
  
• Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group was formed in 1975 to restore an endangered peregrine falcon population in California. With the de-listing of the peregrine falcon from the endangered species list, they apply their expertise to a wider range of raptor wildlife management.

Natural Reserves
The UC system has more than 35 Natural Reserves. The five reserves that form the UCSC unit spread out along 60 miles of the Central Coast from Año Nuevo Reserve in the north to Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve in the south on the Big Sur coast.

Santa Cruz Institute of Particle Physics (SCIPP) is recognized as a leader in the development of custom readout electronics and silicon micro-strip sensors for state-of-the-art particle detection systems. SCIPP staff are primarily focused on experimental and theoretical particle physics and particle astrophysics.

STEPS Institute for Innovation in Environmental Research is an interdisciplinary research initiative facilitating teams of researchers within UCSC and regional partnerships to address scientific/social disconnects in two areas of national and regional research priority, with an emphasis on the Pacific coast of the United States: genetic diversity and water research.

University of California Observatories/Lick Observatory (UCO/Lick) conducts leading-edge research to answer the most profound questions in observational astronomy. UCO provides technical resources to design and fabricate leading instrumentation, optics, programming and detectors as well as oversight of the Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton, California, and co-management of the W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.